This Day

Do you ever have one of "those" days? You know, the kind where it seems like your kids are bent on driving you into the insane asylum. The kind where you think that they got together the night before just to think of ways to drive you crazy. Well, today was like that. It started off with waking up late. Me, not them. That is never a good start. When your two year old comes and climbs up in your bed and has an apple in his hand it is never a good sign. Breakfast went okay but that was only because I made smoothies, which happens to be their favorite. Alex was the last one to get up, as usual. I yelled up that stairs that if he was not dressed and down in the kitchen in five minutes that I was going to drink his smoothie. I heard a crash upstairs and the frantic movement of feet and he flew down the stairs withe seconds to spare. I was looking forward to that smoothie too. I sent the kids outside to play after I thought the kitchen was cleaned up (my mistake for trusting that an 12, 11, and 10 year old would actually do their morning chores correctly.) I had to call each of them back in to redo their jobs the right way (any other mother get tired of training their children to do the same chore 100 times.) The screaming started outside with Daniel not getting his way and that just set Sam and Caleb to screaming too. I think that if someone had been walking down the road they would have thought a murder was occurring. That was the way it was all day. No one was happy with anything. I decided to get some exercise this morning and, horror of horrors, I told them that we were going to, wait for it, the park!!!! They simultaneously erupted into crying and whining. I just stood there in shock. They love to go to the park. I was absolutely in an utter state if confusion. I packed everyone in the car and began to wonder where Alex was. I walked to the back yard only to find my oldest son with a hose watering the hill. I yelled at him to cease and desist only to have him look at me and ask why. Why? Why can you NOT make my backyard into a mud pit? Why can you NOT make a mud slide out of the hill? I began to not so calmly explain the hundred reasons why. The laundry, the slipping and falling flat on your face. The fact that you won't be able to get back up the hill. He wanted to take the sleds and literally make a slide out of mud. He could not understand why I was so angry. Could it be that I had just told all of them that they could not slide down the hill until the sun dried up the ground a little bit more. Well, I finally got everyone in the car, after threatening to leave Caleb in the house. He was standing at the door yelling at me in words I could not comprehend but he got his point across. I should have just stayed home and put them all in chairs and had training time. The park trip went well. Back home we had lunch which again was a favorite of the kids, baked potatoes with fixins. After putting Caleb down for a nap I sent the kids outside. Esther and Daniel got into a fight over, wait for it, a stick. No joke. Last week I had confiscated a stick that literally was in the shape of a gun. No lie. The kids all wanted it so I took it away and hid it. Esther found it today and Daniel proclaimed that it was his. Esther's solution to the problem was to take it out in the backyard and throw it into the neighbors back yard which is full of kudzu. Daniel meanwhile is following her screaming at the top of his lungs. I am following both of them trying to figure out what the problem is. If I had a camera I would have won AFV. Well, needless to say, Esther and Daniel both ended up being disciplined and spending some time in chairs. Right when I finally had peace and was going to start some chores I needed to get done baby girl woke up and needed to nurse. By the time I was done with her the kids were done playing outside, Caleb was up, and it was time to start dinner. I hate clocks. I got dinner all ready and warming in the oven for when Carl came home. I sat down and wanted to take a nap only to deal with Caleb and Sam screaming over toys. Caleb kept trying to tell me something about his finger but with his limited vocabulary he resorted to yelling and shoving his finger in my face. Sam meanwhile decided he wanted a red apple immediately even though I had already told him, and Esther, and Daniel, and Nathan, and everyone else, that no they could not have a snack 10 minutes before dinner. I was exhausted when Carl came home. I told him that after dinner I had to go upstairs and clean our room, which really was not a lie. Our room looked like someone taken every piece of clothing from the entire house and dumped it on our floor. I now have all the kids in bed and am sitting here with Tirzah plastered to my hip. That is the only way she will go to sleep at night. The dryer is going, the downstairs is clean (or at least I hope - I have not been down to check yet), and my room now has a floor that is clear of clothing, dirty diapers, hot wheel cars, bakugan, playmobile people, legos, rubber snakes (yes, I did find one under the bed), and an assortment of other toys that my children gifted me with. I sit here and realize that not every day will be like today. It makes me so glad that the Lord gives me just enough strength for this day. This day with all the whining and fighting. This day where I know I could have handled things better. This day where I let my children get away with too much. This day that leaves me feeling discouraged and in need of a hug. I can come before God and ask forgiveness. I can seek his wisdom to make changes to my day to make things run smoother. I can crawl into his arms and get the encouragement I need to go on. I can go to bed knowing that tomorrow I get a new day to try and bring glory and honor to a gracious and merciful God. Yes, today I made mistakes, but tomorrow is a new day and God will give me the exact amount of strength that I need to get through everything that will happen. This evening I am thankful that i can come before God and confess my sins and that he removes those sins as far as the east is from the west. So yes, today was hard but tomorrow is almost here and I get another shot to do it all over again.